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Show i ; l ' NNN His Good "Humor Is ah 'Asset of'ar,'' ii I :.' JOT?S WyM : and the Government Is Fostering gHg;" Wvfi 1 I ' ; : " ' m4W I Music FuI1 as a Means of Producing I 7-1 W 7jL&JW V Efficient and Effective Fighters. I By Edward Frank Allen rpHE successful man Is the one who keeps In- tcrestetl In his job. "When the United States was drawn Into tho world conflict the war department de-partment realized this fact and laid its plans accordingly. ac-cordingly. How have these plans worked out? Look, to the western front for your answer. Tho men who, In camp and cantonment, had time and opportunity for healthful diversion, athletic and otherwise, and who kept intcrestod thereby, arc-now arc-now successfully doing their part toward beating Prussianism to its knees. One afternoon at Camp Kearney, near San Diego, Cal., I saw 3000 soldiors playing on the stimulation of morale, u gives inui than athletic diversions; it puts a song-leader ir. camp, for example, and encourages musical expression After a drill on the parade ground the regiment Is drawn up in front of the reviewing stand, or In the armory, and from 15 minutes to half an hour of singing follows. This Is also a fun-efficiency fun-efficiency exercise, but with the addition addi-tion of inspiration. 'Gen. Pershing recently re-cently cabled, "Send more singing ' regimenfs," because he knew that singing raises men's spirits and In- creases their powers of endurance. I Soldiers on the march step more I briskly to -such a chorus as: j ate ' " life t1? Tuning Camp Men Playing an Exciting Form of "Medicine Ball.'" InK parade ground. Every one of them was stripped jjlL to the waist. Their guns were stacked in long fir rows of threes, and beneath these were shirt's, I HE blouses and service hats. Lieutenants were stand IH Ing by looking on. Men and officers seemed to Be be enjoying the fun. II i t The camp director of athletics explained how 15 these men happened to bo having such a good I ' time during a period of what was technically mlll- II ' i tary drill. "Tho commission on training camp ac-lj ac-lj ; ! tivlties, which -Is under the authority of the war if 1 department," he said, "is behind this. They have Iff f t demonstrated the value of not only body-building, 18 j muscle-hardening games, but also "of what have Iff ' been called fun-eficlency games. , 16 ' "Having a Good Time" III 1 "I don't need to tell you 'that every one of U It those men Is having a good time." He didn't in-I in-I jl j deed, for they were all shouting and laughing like 111 : a crowd of schoolboys at recess. "But," he con-lj(jj con-lj(jj tlnued, "it may be less apparent that they are III i getting real military benefit from it. Look at H those parallel rows of men bending over. They III : are engaged in a medicine-ball race. The ball is jj being rolled between their logs down to the man lit on. tho end of the line. Ho grabs it now watch jjj ' him! runs a hundred yards up ahead of the line, lj '.' returns to tho front of the group, and rolls it lui ' back again'to the rear man, who repeats the per- formance. The team that finishes first wins tho I ip ' ' race. i M (! "Games like this keep alive tho spirit of coni- ;' petition and teach the men agility and alertness, liji That is why they are considered a part of mill- jjM tary drill. The men need these qualities in flght-Hflif1, flght-Hflif1, . Ing the German. The good humor that goes with H!c!) them Is recognized by the government as a valu-H' valu-H' able by-product." IS! V 'On another section of the field men were doing nj'l 1 second-story wrestling. Seated on tho shoulders Ifti j of their fellows, they tried to throw each other to llj; the ground, generally with the result that alj. four Hi V i mea eugaged in the bout piled up In a heap after I?jg0 the first onslaught, doubled up with laughter, but Huil eager for another go. I thought of tho 2,000,000 Hqfjl' men In France who had gone through this tr'aln-Hpjfjjj tr'aln-Hpjfjjj Ing in all of the camps in the United Statesmen who could not only fight but laugh, and fight the Itfpfi better for it. Hijil' The relaxation furnished by the commission Pn tralnlDS CamP aCVitleS Dla5S a parin the ill "V.. ' . . We're on the way to Heligoland To get the Kaiser's goat, Up the Kiel Canal wo'll float ' In a good old Yankee boat. I'm a son of a gun If I see a Hun, I'll make him understand We'll knock tho Heligo into Hellgo Out of Heligoland," Yr.-hr . V. ., ' - Wrestling in the Air A Hilarious Sport in ' 1 .1 Which Contestants Are Carried v on Shoulders. ; . ' " '.".!" lages, there are entertainments for the soldiors ,l ' V- '.; -..'"'' ', , ' by patriotic actor folk who have gone to France " : x'Xjt" r'" ' for this very purpose. It keeps the men Injiigh 0 ' ' . . . ' spirits to bo able to hear Elsie JLanis sing tho It isn't so much a matter of what they sing, as Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman of the commission, commis-sion, said, as that they siog. And they certainly do sing on every possiblo occasion, with tho same joy with which they play and with the samo snap with which they fight. After tho mud and boredom of the tronches, after dreary days of being billeted in forlorn vil- Billiards in the" Amusement Zone (Near j Camp Lewis, Wash.) j laJest songs ol home, to see E. H. Sothern In lm- personations of some of Ills famous, charactora i and to be diverted by dozens of other wpII known ? players. From their v dramatic everyday work j these soldiers turn to the drama .for recreation. They even put on their own amateur shows with i tho help of the Y. M. C. A. "j Audiences Behind the Lines j Picture a khaki audience in a train shed some- j where on the wcsteqi front. On an improvised stnge a spirited playlet is being given. The men are relaxed and, for the time being, war is forgotten. forgot-ten. It Is betier than the movies, for they are being entertained by the spoken word and in their own languago as well Suddenly there i3 a whispered whis-pered order from somewhere in back of theMiall and men begin to leave. Tho performance con- , tlnues. The military drama must not Interfere ' J with that of tho make-believe word and so the i order for solemn matters is whispered. The American soldier wants to have fun and his Uncle Sam is making it possible for him U havo it at every availablo opportunity. But best ' of all, he has the will to play and the will to sing and these, Jn combination with his indomlfablo j will lo fight, are what are making the United States army invincible. J He generates most of his own fun that may bo the best of all but pictures, on the screen, In the ."funny sheets," cheery reading and every other I source of wholesome jollity that lifts the strain and keeps him healthy and normal is a welcoma source at this hour. j Draw up for a "Sing" at Camp Kearney, San Diego, Cal. Song Leaders Are Holding ; up Sheets Bearing the Words. 1 I. x ' h -7' 'p PlililmiMidP 1 f r ' 1 ' - ''r Mr -' M -a..j-- m I A Lively Form of Laughing Athletics in Which a Man Is "Passed" Like a BalL - 'H Ncwspnper Tcnturc Service, 1918, ' . - ' . .- .f t 1,1 , ( : - |
